Comic book creators drawn together with a Bamn'

Trio launches its first comic through independent publisher

At Alliance Comics in Silver Spring, Jay Payne, 25, of Chevy Chase, David Dean, 25 of Silver Spring and Troy Allen, 28, of Hyattsville pose with the first issue of their comic book "Bamn" published late last year.

For everyone who has ever picked up an issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man" and thought "I could do better than that," meet David Dean, Jay Payne and Troy Allen, who published the first issue of their independent comic book last year.

Dean, 25, of Silver Spring, and Payne, 25, of Chevy Chase developed the concept in 2005 when Payne began bringing sketches he'd made of character designs to Alliance Comics in downtown Silver Spring where the two worked together. Allen, 28, of Hyattsville, signed on as a writer after admiring Payne's sketches while working as a manager at Alliance.

By October 2008, the first 100 issues of "Bamn," a chronicle of a down-and-out professional wrestler who decides to mentor a group of high school backyard wrestlers, were printed and ready for sale.

"I do believe that this is the beginning," Payne said Jan. 14 at Alliance, where the three meet each week to discuss the book and work on the next edition, which is due next April. "After [the first issue] I talked to the guys and I wanted to know where their heads were as far as their ambition was concerned, and we all put our hands together saying we wanted to go the whole 10 yards."

"Bamn," named after the main character in the series, is expected to run about 50 issues. The creative team put up their own money to print and advertise the book. They sold 70 copies at the 2008 Small Press Expo in Bethesda and have moved several copies on ComiXpress.com, an independent printing and marketing company based in New Jersey.

"Our goal is to get it done, get it out there and see our idea develop," Dean said, outlining the group's independent approach. "Once we got issue one inked, we Googled how to self-publish a comic' and found ComiXpress. … We've been with them since."

The trio spent about $145 printing the first 100 copies, plus about $600 for promotional materials to sell the book at the convention, according to Dean. At $2.99 a copy, Dean estimates the first issue sales netted $200. The three hope the book will catch on in the indie crowd and sales will increase as the creators work on more regular release dates for new issues.

"The guys from Bamn' are actually very typical of our average customer," said Logan DeAngelis, president of ComiXpress. "These were guys trying to scrape together enough money to get their printing done and see a profit."

Funding aside, Dean, Payne and Allen are excited to be realizing a dream, and telling a semi-autobiographical story as well. Allen spent six months with a wrestling promoter while he was at Montgomery College. He tried to break into professional wrestling but was turned off by what he called the darker side of the business, one of the major themes facing Bamn.

"People use steroids, people use drugs and there's a lot of political stuff going on backstage, and you start to realize that these people are people, they're not characters," he said.

Another important theme is the underdog story of homegrown wrestling fans trying to make it big. In the first issue, Bamn meets up with the high school students. After seeing them tormented by the school's wrestling team, the pro-turned-drunk decides to give them the help they need to fight back. He cleans up his own act in the process.

"I would talk to the promoter about the concept of maybe we should do a thing where the backyard guys fight the pro guys that you actually have in [professional wrestling] already," Allen said. "Nothing ever came of that, of course, but flash forward a couple of years and that's ultimately what Bamn' is about."

With Payne and Dean creating the art and design and Allen crafting the dialogue, the "Bamn" team might look to break into the mainstream comics industry some day. But for now, at least, the three are content in their role as your friendly neighborhood comic book creators.

"We're hopeful, but at the same time it feels really good to own it and to do this on our own," Payne said. "I feel that we're very comforted keeping it as our own. It's early going and I think the excitement that we have, we'd like to keep it a little longer."